Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Two Men Accused of Working Altadena’s Burn Zone Without a License Return to Court

Andrew and Daniel Escarzaga are due in Department D on Wednesday morning, where a preliminary hearing date is scheduled to be set in their felony case

Eight days after investigators named the spark that burned Altadena, a courtroom on East Walnut Street will take up one of the crimes that followed it.

Andrew Escarzaga, 27, and Daniel Escarzaga, 29, both of Chino, are scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in Department D of the Pasadena Courthouse. 

Each man is charged with a single felony count of contracting without a license during a natural disaster. Unlicensed contracting is ordinarily a misdemeanor in California. It becomes a felony when the work involves structures damaged or destroyed by a disaster for which the governor has proclaimed a state of emergency or the president has declared an emergency or major disaster. Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed an emergency for Los Angeles County on Jan. 7, 2025, the day the Eaton Fire started. Conviction carries up to three years in state prison and a $10,000 fine.

The two accused men are among five charged in one Altadena operation. The District Attorney’s Consumer Protection Division filed the charges Dec. 4, 2025, and the office said in a Dec. 11, 2025, news release that they allegedly contracted without a license in the fire zone on Oct. 8, 2025.

The charges are allegations, and both men are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Prosecutors did release those details for the three others charged. Edgar Geovanni Lopez Revolorio, 43, of Arleta; Guillermo Ramirez, 55, of Pomona; and Melvin Hairon Mejia Ordonez, 42, of Los Angeles each pleaded not guilty in December 2025 and were released on their own recognizance, the office said.

The cases came out of an undercover operation the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation ran with the California Contractors State License Board.

Announcing the charges beside Supervisor Kathryn Barger at a fire-destroyed Altadena property, District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said his office was “cracking down on criminal contractors who prey on residents.” Barger, whose Fifth District includes unincorporated Altadena, put it in dollars. “It often costs more in the long run,” she said of hiring unlicensed contractors, according to Tribune News Service.